Just checked the weather, still looks to be very good. If we are lucky, we may find an air inversion, where we will be up in the heated air. We ran into that one year, just amazing. Down below us, the clouds were flowing into the valley, it looked like a river as it spilled into the lower sections. We were at 6,500 feet, in our T shirts. We broke camp and hiked down, dropping into the cold air below us, arriving at the parking lot, with those that camped there in full down jackets and ice on the ground. They looked at us and wondered where the hell we had come from, shorts and t shirts on. I just said; "AIR INVERSION!" and wandered on to the car.

The high pressure area looks to start to break down on Sunday, so we are lucking out on another adventure.

It does not get any better than having lunch at 7,000 feet with your friends! What a day.

We started off with heavy fog in the low lands, but, as I suspected we had an air inversion, with nice warm air sitting on top of us. All our meet points worked out with military precision, thanks to all for being on time, that made the day go as scheduled for sure. Heading down I-5 had us going through that light rain heavy fog can give.

Stopping at the Glacier ranger station has us grabbing some parking permits for the wilderness, with Jason and Juliette jumping into Cam's Delica for the trip to Twin Lakes. The 4 x 4 section was not bad at all, enough late summer traffic having pounded down the cross ditching.
The sun had cracked the far ridges, so within 15 minutes of hiking, we shed our jackets. The inversion had the air temp warm already, and heat built quite quickly in the sun. We rounded the first corner on the trail with an incredible view of Mt. Larrabee ahead if us, and the High Pass ridge we would be heading to for lunch. The trail drops here for a ways, which I hate because we have to come back up this at the end of the hike. I had forgotten the zig zag section of switch backs, which go for a serious elevation climb in a short distance. We stopped for a small snack at the top of this, now able to see Mt. Baker off in the distance. It is so nice to be above the smog that we get in Vancouver, as the snow on Baker glistened white in the morning sun.

Distance in the mountains is deceiving too, the scale is beyond our daily norm. We were about halfway to the High Pass ridge and it still looked a long ways away. The final grind to the ridge is up a steep scree slop, the trail zig zagging it's way up. I was in my usual take 20 steps and stop for a breather mode, still wondering why after all these years I suck on climbs. The view that greets one on the top is not really describable, even pictures are hard to do it justice. We have an almost a 360 degree view of the Cascades, with only Mt. Larrabee blocking our view, towering some 1,000 feet more above us.
Shedding our packs, we decided to go check out a test shaft that was not far from us. That had us going along a very sketchy ledge of loose scree material. That got my heart going for a few seconds. Arriving at the shaft location had it plugged from a rock fail at the entrance, it was totally corked, sealed forever now. Across from us was the backside of the PLEIDES, a massif of sharp rock ridges, where, on a small ridge, we saw two mountain goats, calmly walking at the edge of the sky. Very cool. It is good the see them back, as I think the population had dwindled for many years. In all my years of hiking, up here and on the other side of the Pleides, I had only seen one other goat, back in the 70's. We headed back to the ridge, with the sketchy part seeming even scarier on the way back.

We decided to have lunch here on the ridge, there was enough breeze to keep the insects at bay, before we headed back down the trail, where, at the halfway point, we would drop down to visit the Garget Mine. At the bottom of the trail we were greeted with some fresh snow run off, ice cold water bubbling down the mountain. We all took a cool drink, splashed ice cold water on our heads, and refilled water bottles. After another 200 feet we came upon the steel wreckage from the mine, and old compressor and tank. Arriving at the shaft had the bottom of the entrance damned up, so the water inside was 3 feet deep, Knowing this mine I knew the whole shaft was plugged, so there was no way we could go in to explore. Chad tried stepping into the ice cold water, but, as the water rose to the family jewels and his eyes got wider, discretion became the better part of valor.....!

It was now time to leave and work our way back to the main trail, then grind our way back to Twin Lakes. The view of the Cascades changed again, as the sun had now moved to the West, the mountains could now show their true colors in the afternoon light. I snapped a few more pictures, grabbed some blueberries, and head on down the trail. As I feared, that last uphill section was slow, my legs finally saying that was a good hike.

Back at the Lake we went over to the shore and soaked our weary feet in the cold water, which felt soooo good! Chad, hero that he is, went for a swim in the chilly water.
We left the parking lot at 3:00 and even with a small Border wait, were back at home by 5:15, a wonderful day had by all I think.

Thanks to Chad, Malcolm, Jason & Julliete ( who get the perseverance award ) Matt & Laura, Cam & Susan, for coming along and sharing this wonderful hike to the sky.